Longest. Lodge Post. Ever. AKA The Comic Con Post

Well, I said I’d get around to a comic-con post eventually, so here it is. Be warned, there’s a helluva lot of ‘geek speak’. And this may possibly be the longest Lodge posting ever. I’m just that nerdy.

Anyway...here’s how it all went down:

Giveaways:

At every con, there’s always the freebie area full of various promotional swag from various comic & film companies. I’ve long since given up on bothering with this stuff, because it usually all just ends up collecting dust. Truthfully it’s mostly crap (Although there’s the occasional gem). It is pretty funny to watch the initial swarm of people when the doors open. It’s as if they think they’re going to find the arc of the covenant lying around. The only cool promo piece I managed to snag was the theatrical teaser poster for ’28 Weeks Later’. I was a little bummed to see I missed out on snagging a teaser poster for the new Star Trek flick. It’s a pretty cool design, and I’m totally psyched to see what JJ Abrams is going to do with the franchise.

Guests:

When you boil it all down, this is the main reason I go to the con. Comics are the one creative medium that really gives you the opportunity to actually interact with the people who are behind the art form.

Some highlights....

---The first booth I hit was for Terry Moore, the writer/artist/creator of ‘Strangers In Paradise’. It’s one of my all time favorite comic books, and is one of the most lent out titles I own. I had him sign a copy of the ‘I Dream Of You’ trade paperback which is bashed to hell from letting people borrow it. I kind of felt embarrassed having him sign it, but he actually perked up when he saw it, saying “it’s always nice to see my books look like this” which led to a little chat about books people use to get non-comics readers to try the medium while he did a sketch for me. He really was just a fantastically nice guy.

---One of the other biggies for me was an artist by the name of Georges Jeanty. He is the guy who is currently doing the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8” comic with Joss Whedon.

A little background: Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended its 7 season run back in 2003. A year later it’s spin off, ‘Angel’ followed suit. In the years since, there’s been talk of direct to DVD movies, and TV mini-series to continue the show. Sadly none of these projects ever came to pass. So last year, Joss decided to reunite many of the original writers of the show and continue the series with an 8th season done in comic book form. So far only 3 issues have come out, but they have all been fantastic! A must read for any Buffy fan (and now there’s word that Joss is going to do a 6th season of Angel as a comic!).

Anyway, Georges was a really cool guy. He was nice enough to do a Buffy sketch for me, and I got to pick his brain about working with Joss Whedon and taking on such a unique process. Interestingly enough Jeanty had to, for lack of a better term, audition for 20th Century Fox to prove that he could accurately depict the actors likenesses.

---One of my favorite comedians, Brian Posehn (Mr. Show, Comedians of Comedy) was in attendance promoting his graphic novel “The Last Christmas”. He’s described the book as ‘Santa Claus meets the Road Warrior’. It’s a fantastically sick and twisted book that actually had me laughing at loud (which can be awkward when reading in public). Still a foul mouthed, alcoholic Santa taking on a world of Zombies can only equal pure gold. And if you haven’t had the chance to check out Posehn on the Sarah Silverman Program, you totally gotta check it out! Where else are you going to learn the wonders of Tab?
(And his comedy CD is really good too!)



---A highlight of the con was provided by Michael Oeming, the artist for the book ‘Powers’, which is another book I really highly recommend. It’s like if NYPD Blue or Homicide was set in a world of super beings. It’s a really solid book, even for the non-super hero fan. Anyway, Oeming did a fundraiser for the Hero Initiative. For $10 you were given a chance to arm wrestle him. If you won you got an original page of art from a comic he worked on. This video features oeming versus Chris Giarrusso, the artist of the mini-marvels.



---I got to chat with writer John Layman for a few minutes. Currently, John is writing the ‘Marvel Zombies vs the Army of Darkness’ mini-series (which rules!). But on the horizon, he’s going to be writing ‘Stephen Colbert’s: Tek Janson”. With a project like this I really wouldn’t expect for Colbert himself to have much involvement, but apparently he’s been extremely active and hands on with the project.

Layman was telling me that for a while, every draft of the script he sent to Colbert would come back covered in notes and changes. After a while of this he finally got up the courage to give Colbert a call to ask if something was wrong, thinking that he hated the work he was doing. Colbert responded saying that he actually loved the scripts he’d been getting. The constant revisions are just his process. When working on the Colbert report, he and his writers rewrite and work on bits over and over up until air time. Layman finally had to point out that eventually someone had to actually sit down and draw the thing.

I thought it was really cool that Colbert (A self confessed comic fan) would be so involved in this book. It turned from a title I really didn’t have much interest in to a book I am really looking forward to pick up.

---Former local boy Tim Sale was also in attendance. Sale is one of the few artists whose work I follow regardless of the book he’s on. This guy could draw how-to manuals and I’d probably read them.

These days, he’s probably best known for his work on the show “Heroes”. Sale is the artist of the paintings done on the show by the character Isaac (The guy who sees the future). At his table, Sale actually had quite a few of the original pieces from the show, including a few that I had never seen before.

Tim Sale is also the artist of one of my favorite Batman stories ever called “The Long Halloween”. If you haven’t read it, I totally recommend it. Read it. Lock it in a box for a year. Take it out of the box. Read it again. You will be transformed (Man I love James Lipton). Still though, it’s a great read and is usually the first book I’ll hand someone who is interested in Batman. The highlight though was that he was nice enough to do a quick little Joker sketch for me!!!

---I managed to grab some words from Dexter Vines. Vines was the inker for Marvel’s Civil War series. He’s a really great guy and he was one of the first inkers I really grew to appreciate. Because of that I had to throw a little love in this blog towards and inker. They don’t have it easy.




---The two biggest lines in the whole con belonged to a pair of Marvel’s biggest writers: Ed Brubaker and Brian Michael Bendis.

Ed Brubaker (another local boy) is probably now best known as the man who killed Captain America and at least 90% of his line was there to have him sign the death issue. As big as that issue was, this guy has a bunch of other books which are just amazing work.

For the non-superhero type his book “Criminal” is one of the best books out there. It’s total pulp-noir title that I can’t recommend enough. To those that love good crime fiction this is 100% up your alley.

Of course it’s hard to talk about Brubaker these days without bringing up Captain America. Ed’s been on this book for 25 issues or so and it’s been the best run of Cap stories I’ve ever read. If the whole death thing has perked your interest in the writer or the title I recommend you check out the “Winter Soldier” storyline (available as a trade paperback collection!).

Both Brubaker and Bendis have combined for what I consider to be the best run on ‘Daredevil’ I have ever read, and that’s saying a lot coming from me. I’m a really big Daredevil fan. The Kevin Smith run is great, the Frank Miller stuff is amazing, but the stuff being done now is so spot on in tone that it’s usually one of the first books I read after a trip to the comic shop.

The overall story of the arc deals with Matt Murdock being ousted as Daredevil by the press. Suddenly the media is camping outside his apartment at all hours, the FBI are investigating him, villains are showing up at his front door & his life goes to absolute hell in such a complete way you have no idea how he’ll possibly get out trouble. The series really shows what happens when the fragile house of cards superheroes build with their secret identity comes tumbling down.

Sometimes it feels like it’s damn near impossible to read a Marvel comic that hasn’t been affected in some way by Brian Michael Bendis. The guy has written so many titles for the company in a relatively short span of time that sometimes it’s hard to keep up. His line at the con really reflected that. Every year I’ve seen him at a convention his lines seem to get longer and longer. Yet he hasn’t lost any of his graciousness. Even after signing comics for 6 straight hours, Bendis is still talkative and personable. In chatting with Bendis he revealed that while he was in town he visited the Microsoft campus to discuss a project he’s doing. He and artist Alex Maleev (one of my favorite artists, but a really rude guy in person) are going to be doing a ‘Halo’ comic book series. The project sounds really cool and Microsoft seems to really be taking the project ultra-seriously, which should mean that it’s not going to be one of those lame comic book tie-in’s & adding a write of Bendis’ caliber is a sign of quality. I’ve really been impressed with Microsoft’s handling of the ‘Halo’ franchise. They really seem to understand how important quality is. Bringing in Peter Jackson for the ‘Halo’ film was a stroke of genius.

Outside of the superhero realm, Bendis has made a name for himself in the world of independent comics. His graphic novel ‘Jinx’ has recently been green lit to become a film, with rumors of Charlize Theron to star. And you really can’t go wrong with his book ‘Powers’ (Drawn by the arm-wrestling Oeming).

Other Guests

It wasn’t all comic book guys there. A few actors and actresses were also in attendance....

---Most important to he lodge, was Chewbacca himself, Peter Mayhew. I didn’t bother meeting the man. I had met him a few years ago and I wasn’t in the mood to drop $20 for him to sign something (That’s what I like about comic guys. They don’t charge you to write their name on something of theirs you’ve already purchased).

---There were a few actors from the show ‘Farscape’. I’ve never seen Farscape. Although the grey chick is kinda hot. Lets just move on....

---Lois Lane herself, Margot Kidder was signing autographs as well. I hate to say it, but the years have really not been kind. I almost didn’t recognize her. These days when someone mentions Kidder I think more of this video than Lois Lane.



---But my favorite of the group had to be Feedback. Feedback was the winner of the sci-fi series “Who Wants To Be A Superhero?”

The show was like a train wreck. It was horrible, but it was so bad you simply can’t look away. Before the show aired ‘Feedback’ was usually known as the guy in the commercial who cried like a little girl when he got to speak to Stan Lee.

Still...I have to give the guy some props. He was an exceptionally friendly and good natured guy. So nice, that I almost felt bad for ragging on him (except for when I’d make fun of the crying thing. That will always be funny).

Costume Contest

What con would be complete without a good ol’ costume contest?

Let me preface by saying that I am so @#$%in’ tired of Star Wars costumes. Every single slightly geeky event always seems to be filled with a bunch of Stormtroopers and overweight Jedi. The novelty is gone. Long, long gone. They’re slowly starting to make the kids who used to where Starfleet uniforms to school look good. I get the these guys dropped hundereds of dollars for their costumes and they want to get the most out of their investment, but it just feels like they’re everywhere. Hell I’ve seen them wandering around the waterfront area taking pictures with tourists. They look like mental patients who got lost. The prequels pretty much sucked...let’s move on.

Anyway...

Costume contests are always an amusing beast. The costumes always seem to bounce between awesome and awful. This is how it usually works:

Entrants are brought up on stage one at a time and post while a host reads an introduction and synopsis about the character their dressed up as written by the entrant.

Most of these people have a lot of fun with it. They realize they’re playing dress up and just want to have fun with it....

...and that’s what made “Punisher Guy” so damn epic.

Punisher-guy wrote up this long ultra-serious synopsis talking about the Punishers mission, blah, blah, blah. So while the MC is reading this little novella Punisher guy marches out to the front of the stage and just stands there, kind of posing, and not really even moving. He just stands there and stares into the crowd trying to look dangerous but cool (like David Caruso in Jade), instead his just looks slightly constipated.

Stomp, stomp, stomp.
Stare.
...two minutes pass...
Stomp, stomp, stomp.
Classic.

It wasn’t all bad, though. There were some pretty solid costumes including a fantastic Hellboy and one of the most chauvinistic DC comics costume ever made: Power Girl.

Don’t get me wrong, who doesn’t want to see a good looking girl in that outfit? But lets be honest, it’s possibly the most un-practical costume in comics, unless you need somewhere to stuff dollar bills.

The Panels

Most years, I’m a panel-whore. Web-comics panels, Indie panels, breaking into comics panels...you name it, I’m usually there. This year though, I only caught a couple: The DC writer’s Panel & the Marvel writer’s panel.

Marvel Editor in Chief Joe Quesada once spoke about the difference between working for DC & Marvel. He said that DC were WASP’s. They’re straight laced, and kind of dull and boring. Marvel on the other hand was more like a family of Sicilians. They’re loud and obnoxious, but way more entertaining. And for me that statement proved true with these panels.

Don’t get me wrong, the DC crew is a really nice bunch. They’re panel consisted of Kurt Busiek (Astro City), Mark Waid (Kingdom Come), Greg Rucka (Queen & Country) and Gail Simone (Birds of Prey). Don’t get me wrong, they’re great writers and they’re really friendly people, but their panel was just a little dull. And maybe I’m biased. I’m a Marvel boy, tried and true. It’s like the whole Beatles Man/Elvis Man argument. Also, I think it may have had to do a bit with the age of the writers. Outside of Greg Rucka it was an older batch of writers than Marvel has in the bullpen.



(although they did announce Ultimate Spider-man artist, Mark Bagley is leaving the title and moving over to the New AvengersThe Marvel writers didn’t have much to offer as far as breaking news and announcements go) but they were an entertaining gang. The panel comprised of Michael Avon Oeming (Omega Flight), Brian Bendis (Ultimate Spiderman), Brian Reed (Ms Marvel), Ed Brubaker (Uncanny X-Men) and Jeff Parker (Marvel Adventures). Most of the questions dealt with the fallout of Marvel’s Civil War and also many of the real world issues the series brought up.

I think that’s one of the coolest things about the whole Civil War concept. Most people think of comic book discussions as two nerds arguing over if Thor could beat up Captain Marvel. Now there was this huge event that managed to get national media attention and it’s asking socially relevant questions like “which is more important? Your personal Freedoms or Civil Liberties?”

It’s one of those things that really gives me hope about the future of the comic book industry. You’ve got movies like ‘300’ and ‘Sin City’, shows like ‘Heroes’, comics like Stephen King’s ‘The Dark Tower’, Brian K Vaughan’s ‘Pride of Baghdad’ and yes ‘Civil War’. It’s all steps towards showing the rest of the world that comics aren’t the stereotype you think they are.

So that just about wraps up this short little post. All in all, it was the most enjoyable Emerald City Con I’ve been to, and I’m already psyched for next years.

Something tells me Joe won’t be asking me for a 2008 con post.